> Actually, where I am right now, we have someone specializing
> in using ADO,
> and this person has been spending more than 12 hours so far trying to
> install ADO (without installing Delphi!) onto a Clients
> machine. Right now
> he is looking pretty pissed with ADO! Personally I have tried it for
> development and found it OK to work with - but no better than BDE, and
> certainly not thinner if using client side cursors.
Hmmm ... doesn't sound like a very thin solution to me....
> As for BDE-SQL Links? Version 5.10 seems fine with SQL 7.
> What specifically
> makes it so stuffed?
>From a TTable, access a blob field - boom! EAccessViolation time, plus lots
more. Use ODBC - its faster too!
> And Data Aware controls are excellent if used sensibly.
> Although they do
> have some limitations, they look a far better proposition to
> me than ALL of
> the hard coded attempts I have seen to date which avoid using the DA
> Controls.
That sounds like a sweeping statement to me.
Data controls are good for the quick phone book type apps, but when you want
to do something more sophisticated, their limitations get in the way. Case
in point is the TDBGrid - it causes all sorts of locks to be placed, because
it keeps an open cursor. If you must use it, better to select your data to
a temporary table, and display the table - there are all sorts of other
gotchas using data aware controls.
For someone new to c/s programming using data controls may seem like a good
idea, but unless you know all the pitfalls, use then judiciously. If
something doesn't work - take the data controls out, and test again.
> Certainly for a beginner they are a very easy soft intro to
> database development. The app will develop quickly, and the
> new developer
> will soon learn how to use them efficiently - something they
> will never do
> by using non data bound components.
> Frankly, it is pretty
> hard to imagine a
> complex Data Aware application not using any DA Controls.
Its called OrderWare - no data controls, just a web application thats all
:).
> Like everything,
> they have their place - A sweeping statement condemning them
> all is really a
> bit over the top.
On the other hand, a sweeping statement for their use is equally over the
top.
Using data controls encourage the practise of mixing your business rules
with your UI. This makes the code difficult to reuse, port and maintain.
That is my main gripe about them. Far better to create a data model and
have your controls operate on the data model (not on datasets). You can
then cleanly partition your code out into layers, eg. db access, storage,
rules, UI.
Regards,
Dennis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Zealand Delphi Users group - Delphi List - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://www.delphi.org.nz
